2016-01-30 Parents urging schools and libraries to get wired internet.

Parents across the US are asking for schools to remove wireless internet. It is a matter of getting information to the parents and teachers. Right now many school boards are preventing or hindering this information from being circulated.

Parents are urging libraries to get informed about wifi. Please consider sharing these two articles with parents, teachers, librarians and school boards. BC Teachers have asked for reduction in wifi in school rooms, schools with only wired internet, and choice for both parents/children and teachers, but so far the government has refused to acknowledge concerns. Please help them.

“A group concerned with the dangers of radiation from cellphones, computers and other sources has asked Sari Feldman, president of the American Library Assn., to spread the word on “an emerging public health crisis, a five-alarm fire.””

Farmers in his area warned the government 10 to 11 years ago at a legislative committee holding hearings in his riding on smart meters that the “technology isn’t ready yet,” he says.

He says it cost $2 billion to install the meters rather than the $1 billion the government said it would cost to install them.

“To me it’s bad enough to go over budget, but even then when the thing doesn’t work and if it hasn’t resulted in conserving energy, why on earth did they think they had the right to do this in the first place?” Barrett asks.

In Germany there is major concern about the invasive element of the Smart grid – the Smart meters.

“The more efficient smart meters represent good news for both bank accounts and the environment, but they are also able to reveal much more about the way people live. Greveler, who has studied the topic extensively, says the meter’s data measures not just energy consumption but specifics such as when people get up in the morning and whether they use the bathroom at night. There is even the possibility for “fine-granular” data collection, meaning in one-second intervals, in which experts could deduce in which room a resident is standing, what movie he’s watching and the display brightness of his television set. Such data from a whole city could then be merged for extrapolation at the energy supplier’s.”

Many of us who have written to the BCUC recently regarding privacy, safety, rates, etc. pertaining to the smeter program have received the very same form letter. Another letter and canned response is below in letters. The BCUC is weaseling out of the responsibility given them under the BC Utilities Commission Act. The Clean Energy Act makes it easy for them to do so re fees, but I question whether they can ignore their responsibility re. safety (fires) or discrimination (why we are charged legacy fees while those whose smart meters are read manually aren’t). I know it feels useless and a waste of time, but I believe it’s like water on a rock – we have to wear them down, and this includes our MLAs. They all want to ignore us until we go away and by now they should know we are here for the duration.!!!

Thank you for your email to the BC Utilities Commission regarding your concerns about the provincial government exempting certain projects from a review by the BC Utilities Commission. The Commission Secretary provided your email to me so that I could provide you with a response.

The provincial government made a decision to exempt certain projects from Commission review and Commission staff are not in a position to interpret why these decisions were made. Accordingly, if you have concerns about government policy, you may wish to contact the Ministry of Energy and Mines or your local MLA directly.

I am forwarding this letter because I couldn’t have said it any better! What a travesty this has all become!

We have chosen to “op-out” and are feeling the unfairness and financial drain of having to pay a ridiculous and unfair amount for the “privilege” of retaining our “smart” meter. This is a shameful state of affairs and one that, in the future, will be viewed as morally, scientifically, environmentally and economically unsound. We implore that your agencies do what you are supposed to be doing–protect its citizens from harm.

(Forwarded Letter)

Dear BC Utilities Commission Members, (this was included in the Jan. 27/16 update).